Behavioural optometry - legit science or quackery?

[Hiddiddleyho]

Dd age 8 has a known eye convergence issue and it looks like also dyslexia. The dyslexia assessor suggested the eye issue is feeding into the dyslexia flags as they're mostly visual and a bit short term memory. She suggested seeing a behavioural optometrist, which we've now done.

The behavioural optometrist did a 'normal' eye test with a lot more detail, then looked at things like copying shapes, identifying backwards letters and numbers, testing awareness left and right, coordination exercises like moving arms and legs in different combos, balance etc. The idea behind it seems to be looking to identify issues in brain processing software as well as visual hardware.

I've done a bit of reading online and it seems a bit like psuedo science, or at least that there's a lack of controlled testing.

I'm wondering if anyone out there knows more? Or has any personal experience to lob some anecdata in?

Hugely helpful for 9yo DS with dyslexia and convergence insufficiency. Before we started he was 2 yrs behind expected reading age and struggling emotionally. 5 months later, after daily practice on the visual therapy exercises, he had caught up 18 months reading progress and was a much happier and more confident boy.

So I would definitely back it for convergence, despite costs. I'm more skeptical about the colour tint glasses for his dyslexia. They're v expensive precision-tinted glass to reduce visual stress and there was no difference in his readibg speed or accuracy wearibg them. I've bought them anyway because you never know, but hmm.

We didn't have the colour tint stuff but my DC wasn't dyslexic.
The optometrist eventually told us we could stop attending once my DC was able to ace the daily software exercises (they were on a CD Rom it was so long ago lol) demonstrating that his eye muscles had begun to function correctly.

I have a balance disorder and problems with my eyes, as well as other slightly peculiar difficulties, so I have wondered about this. It’s interesting to read all your experiences. Dizziness affects eyes and vice versa.

I don’t doubt there is a lot of hogwash and snake oil but EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, a now common treatment for PTSD) works through eye movement, which on the face of it seems pretty strange, so if eye movement can allow access and give signals to the brain that relieves and ‘reprocesses’ traumatic memories and thought patterns, its seems plausible that some or all of the exercises do have a positive effect, even if perhaps some of it isn’t in quite the way the some people are selling it or understand it.

DD 15 has had Vision Therapy twice, first when she was 8 and we were trying to sort out problems around dyslexia. She has awful eye stress, tracking and convergence. We did the exercises for retained reflexes, not sure if they worked, and bought green lense glasses which definitely worked and she still wears them or has green paper or green screen on her laptop. At 14 we took DD back for a second time as she is unable to bat well in cricket as she losses sight of the ball. More exercises for probably 4 months and I have to say there is huge improvement in her hand-eye coordination in all racquet sports and her batting. Was it the VT or did she just mature into better hand-eye coordination? I honestly don’t know as it all seemed like silly exercises. DD believes it worked.

Our report cost £500 then sessions were £60 per hour. As it wasn’t local we also had travel costs. Coloured lenses were £200, with a retest after the year advising a slightly different tint at a further £200. The 10 minute exercises a day took about 20 minutes a day. The report was useful as, alongside other issues, was evidence for ECHP.

Joyous otter my understanding is that the eye movements are similar to the elastic band or pinching yourself to create a sensation which stops your brain in its downward spiral and encourages conscious positive thought processes.

So it's not so much about the eye movements themselves.

For those with convergence problems or poor binocular control an Orthoptist will sort you out with properly controlled exercises and treatment free of charge !

In my view Behavioural optometry is more or less the same as homeopathy. If you want to believe it works then it probably will have a positive effect but more because of mind over matter !

The assessment was £300 and the report is an additional £75.

@Protragonist when you say orthotist I don't know what you mean, i assume not a high street optician.

We've been using one. She is great. My daughter had lingering eyesight issues post squint and they are improving now. You can see on the machinery they use exactly what is going on with the eye tracking and how it is improving.

Several family members on my husband's side had the same squint operation when they were kids and were given follow up eye physiotherapy by the NHS. We were offered nothing - simply discharged back to the community after the post op checks.

I suspect as a layperson that this is yet another area where the NHS has quietly stopped offering proper aftercare. What I see with my daughter was the surgeon fixed the "hardware" very well but the "software" needed attention.

I attended a conference which had a presentation on this. I thought it was interesting specifically for dyslexia and worth trying - after all, a pair of glasses is easy to assess the effectiveness of, might help, and won't cause any harm whatsoever.

When the presenter started going excitedly into how it could explain/fix ASD and ADHD displaying extremely narrow/poor understanding of both, I'm afraid I became a bit sceptical.

However, interesting to me to do some of the exercises - I have ADHD and I could not figure out which is my dominant eye. Whichever plane of focus is not my current focus is always doubled for me. Whether that's related I have no idea. I wear glasses and it's not come up in any eye test for me.

I did wonder if they might have an effect for sensory issues in a similar way e.g. to Loop earplugs, or noise-cancelling headphones, therefore affording the wearer a bit more "bandwidth" available for other activities.

My depth perception is also very poor, which I think is the cause of my terrible hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness.

This page explains about orthoptists https://www.orthoptics.org.uk/patients-and-public/what-is-an-orthoptist/#:~:text=is%20an%20Orthoptist%3F-,Orthoptists%20are%20the%20experts%20in%20diagnosing%20and%20treating%20defects%20in,to%20communicate%20with%20the%20eyes.

Orthoptists are the experts in diagnosing and treating defects in eye movement and problems with how the eyes work together, called binocular vision. These can be caused by issues with the muscles around the eyes or defects in the nerves enabling the brain to communicate with the eyes.

My dd saw an orthoptist up until about the age of 4 for a different problem. Her treatment was successful.

Orthoptics' - check out the British and Irish Orthoptic society website which has lots of information and advice !

OK, to see an orthoptics person it just says to go via the GP. So I can attempt that and see if I get anywhere. But annoying the optician who diagnosed the eye issue initially has never mentioned this. Or the dyslexia assessor.

Worst case scenario I go to the private behavioural optometrist, we do some coordination stuff, we still get to the eye stuff.

I end up having spent another £390 on top of what I've already spent which will be spread out so I can manage it.

I think these "neuro" treatments do exactly that, reduce stress on the neuro system over all which helps with "bandwidth" and makes life easier for ND people.

Everything about who we are physically and emotionally is also linked to our neurological system.

No one should be claiming a cure for ND though, I reckon they don't understand that an improvement in X difficulty is no the same as cure 🤦🏼‍♀️

My life is very much improved by no longer having retained primitive reflexes I'm still ND unsurprisingly!

Wondering if anyone had any more recent update on this topic? My son is due a dyslexia assessment (£500) but they wanted him to have a behavioural optometrist assessment first as we'd noticed coloured overlays helped his reading. Just been and it was nearly three hours of assessment costing £300 and then £175 for tinted glasses - and that's just for the tinted lens as the frames and mild prescription was covered on the nhs. My other son has quite a strong lens for eyesight through Vision Express and this is almost totally covered by NHS, I think I pay £40 for a special coating, that's it, so not sure how my other son's, with hardly any prescription, costs so much more for just tinted glass??

A lot of what he said made sense for my son but I'm dubious as he now wants regular vision therapy for him and some of the physical tests I felt I would've 'failed' as well! I may just stay with the glasses until after his dyslexia assessment and then see what she says too. The BO is a 45 minute drive away as well as I couldn't find one closer so it's costing me a fortune just to get there never mind without the therapy and glasses on top.

Whereabouts in the country are you CallawayV?

East Midlands

Private messaged you

Sorry I know you posted a while back but would you mind sharing what improvements have you noticed?

@InattentiveADHD mainly calmer, sleep better, literally less adrenaline pumping around my body. Less jumpy less on edge.

I'm the OP. My Dd has just finished a 6m course of vision therapy. I know it's complete anacdata but we think it's been good for her. Her reading in particular has really improved. School and grandparents all started to comment after about 3/4m of treatment. Hard evidence wise her reading age went more than a year in 6m. I think her coordination has improved too, she doesn't seem to knock cups of water over so frequently!

Costs wise if anyone's interested it was £350 for assessment and report then £55 per session, one a month. Dd was set daily exercises to do and reassessed at the end.

Hello @Hiddiddleyho wondering if you could say where in the country you are, please? I've just found this thread researching behavioural optometry. We have just had our adopted daughter assessed by an OT. The result is a near-certain diagnosis (with a couple of things needing to be ruled out by a paediatrician) of DCD (formerly dyspraxia) but she has also recommended a behavioural optometrist as she has noticed eye tracking issues - hence my research. I am happy to pay what is needed (I'll find a way) but what we have very little of is time, so I want to have a high degree of confidence it'll work... and it'll help us a lot if we don't have to travel too far either! It seems like you very much felt it was money well spent for you - it'd be great to know who / where your specialist was, please.

In Gloucestershire - if that's any use to you I'll message you the name @OldForANewMum